AFP USA

The longest-ever US government shutdown appeared headed Monday to an eventual resolution, after several Democratic senators broke ranks to join Republicans in advancing a compromise deal — sparking intra-party backlash.Since October 1, the first day of the shutdown, more than a million federal workers have been unpaid, while government benefits and services have been increasingly disrupted.Severe impacts on air traffic have begun to mount in recent days, with more than 1,000 flights canceled daily, raising the political pressure to end the stalemate.”We’ll be opening up our country very quickly,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding: “the deal is very good.”After clearing a key procedural hurdle late Sunday, the Senate began the voting process late Monday to pass the compromise budget measure.It would then move to the House of Representatives, which like the Senate is controlled by Republicans. The chamber could vote on the bill as early as Wednesday to send it to Trump’s desk.”It appears to us this morning that our long national nightmare is finally coming to an end, and we’re grateful for that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday. “At least some Democrats now finally appear ready to do what Republicans and President Trump and millions of hardworking American people have been asking them to do for weeks.”The House — which Johnson has kept out of session throughout the standoff — would be called back this week, he said.”I’d like to vote tonight after the Senate is done, but it takes everybody a while to get back” for a vote, Johnson told broadcaster CNN.- Obamacare – At the heart of the impasse is Democrats’ demand to extend health insurance subsidies expiring at the end of the year. Republicans insist any negotiation occur after the government is re-opened.Millions of Americans who have purchased health insurance through the “Obamacare” program would see their costs double if the subsidies are not extended.Sunday’s breakthrough agreement would re-open the government through January, with some programs funded for the full fiscal year, and reverse some of the Trump administration’s firings of federal workers.The bill notably would restore funding for the SNAP food aid program, which helps more than 42 million lower-income Americans pay for groceries.While the Senate’s Republican leadership has agreed to hold an eventual vote on health care, it does not ensure the insurance subsidies will be extended.”After 40 days of uncertainty, I’m profoundly glad to be able to announce that nutrition programs, our veterans, and other critical priorities will have their full-year funding,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said late Sunday.While leaders were rushing to move the bill through Congress, it could still take days to make its way to Trump’s desk. Tuesday is a national holiday.- Divided Democrats -Senator Jeanne Shaheen, one of eight Democratic caucus members who backed the measure, said the Senate “took a big step forward towards protecting the health care of tens of millions of Americans.”She said the agreement would grant Democrats, despite being in the minority, the power to call a vote on health care legislation.However, with the extension of the subsidies not guaranteed, the move has angered party members who preferred to keep holding out.”Pathetic,” California Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X in reaction to the announced agreement.Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer voted no, saying he could “not in good faith” support a measure “that fails to address the health care crisis.””This fight will and must continue,” he vowed.Some lawmakers criticized Schumer himself for failing to keep the Democrats united.”Tonight is another example of why we need new leadership,” Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton said Sunday. 

After years of temporary pop-up events, streaming giant Netflix will make its first foray into the theme park space this week, rivalling entertainment giants Disney and Universal Studios.The company’s “Netflix House” theme park will open its doors Wednesday at the King of Prussia mall — one of the largest shopping centers in the United States, in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — in a space measuring over 100,000 square feet (10,000 square meters).The theme park, which will offer free admission, plans to host a wide range of dining and activities, all decorated to resemble some of the platform’s most popular shows and movies, including “Bridgerton,” “Stranger Things,” “Squid Game” and “KPop Demon Hunters.”Netflix Chief Marketing Officer Marian Lee said the company opted against charging for admission because “we wanted that accessibility. We want to be an everyday destination.””As we were launching these pop-up experiences, it became clear that we would actually have more flexibility if we had a permanent location,” she told AFP in an interview.Additional “Netflix House” locations are set to open after the Pennsylvania attraction, with one in Dallas, Texas scheduled to debut on December 11 and a third on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada by 2027.”Las Vegas is a very different space. It’s not inside of a shopping center, but it is on the Strip…and so there, we will program it a little bit differently,” Lee said.Although Lee did not confirm the costs to build these theme parks, she said “you can see it’s a huge capital investment for the company to invest in both the space and like all the finishings and the fabrications of everything.”As of right now, Lee said there no plans to build a “Netflix House” internationally. “We’d have to think about it in a different way,” she said.

The United Nations climate conference opened Monday in the Brazilian Amazon with pleas for the world to keep up the fight against global warming, even as the United States turns its back.Feeble progress toward weaning off fossil fuels and cutting planet-warming emissions have opened fault lines between countries in Belem, the hot and sticky city on the edge of the rainforest hosting the two-week COP30 summit.”It’s time to inflict a new defeat on the deniers,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva thundered in his opening address, which followed a traditional performance from Indigenous people in feathered headpieces.He pointedly slammed those who “spread fear, attack institutions, science, and universities.”Weighing on the talks is the absence of the United States, the world’s top oil producer and second-largest polluter.But American state and local leaders, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, are set to take the stage Tuesday to show the country isn’t entirely missing in action, highlighting their own climate policies and solidarity with global efforts.”Make no mistake, humanity is still in this fight,” said UN climate chief Simon Stiell. “We have some tough opponents, no doubt, but we also have some heavyweights on our side.” He pointed to “the brute power of market forces” beginning to tip in favor of renewables, which this year overtook coal as the world’s top energy source: “extraordinary progress that was unimaginable a decade ago.”The summit opens in the wake of destructive storms in the Caribbean and Asia and a growing fear that geopolitical tensions — from wars to trade feuds — are distracting from the fight against climate change.In a stark reminder of what’s at stake, the UN’s top climate scientist reaffirmed that a temporary breach of the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) benchmark — the safer warming goal of the Paris Agreement — was now inevitable.Those challenges and more were compounded by logistical problems in Belem, including a dire shortage of hotel rooms.Organisers say just over 42,000 delegates have gathered, fewer than at recent editions, as sky-high accommodation costs appear to have kept many away.Lula has defended the choice of location, saying he wanted to bring the world’s attention to the Amazon’s role in combating climate change, a shift mainly driven by burning coal, oil and gas.- Tough negotiations -A tough two weeks lies ahead for diplomats meeting in a cavernous conference hall, where the din of negotiations are occasionally drowned out by tropical rainfall hammering the roof overhead.Rich nations and developing countries regularly clash at COPs over how to raise the money needed for poorer regions to adapt to climate change and shift to a low-carbon future.”Our 44 countries did not light this fire, but we are bearing its heat,” Evans Njewa, a Malawian diplomat who chairs the Least Developed Countries (LDC) bloc that represents more than one billion people, told reporters.Major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia have traditionally opposed efforts at COPs to focus on fossil fuels. At COP28 in 2023, nations historically agreed to transition away from fossil fuels for the first time.Lula has floated the idea of a “roadmap” on fossil fuels at COP30, but the proposal so far lacks details.For 30 years, the countries party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change — adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro — have met annually to strengthen the global climate regime.Those efforts culminated in the 2015 Paris Agreement, which commits the world to limiting global warming to well below 2C relative to pre-industrial levels, while striving for 1.5C.But Jim Skea, head of the UN’s expert climate science body, warned Monday it was “almost inevitable” that the world will cross the crucial warming threshold at least temporarily.The world’s failure to rein in global temperature rises is the focus of an effort by small island nations to put this on the official agenda.A Western diplomat told AFP that such nations “are ready to upend the COP” if they don’t see a stronger official response to these efforts assured at COP30.”If they don’t deliver on 1.5C, that spells our demise,” Tuvalu minister for climate affairs and environment Maina Vakafua Talia told AFP.burs-lth/ia/np/mlm

The United States will remove strong safety warnings on many hormone therapies used to alleviate menopausal symptoms, saying the risks have been exaggerated, authorities announced Monday.Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) replaces estrogen that the female body stops producing during menopause with the aim of alleviating symptoms including hot flashes, brain fog, insomnia, night sweats and joint pain.Previously used routinely, prescription and use of the therapies have plummeted worldwide since a landmark trial in the early 2000s pointed to risks associated with specific HRT formulations.Since then “black box warnings” — the strongest warning the US Food and Drug Administration can require on prescription drugs — have sounded alarm over increased HRT risks including of certain cancers, cardiovascular conditions and probable dementia.But critics have pointed to flaws with the early 2000s Women’s Health Initiative, whose trials were halted as risks appeared: namely it focused on women who were a decade-post-menopause and in their 60s, when cardiovascular risks increase regardless.Today guidance generally indicates that healthy newly menopausal or perimenopausal women — people broadly in their 40s or 50s — are among potential candidates for treatment.There also are newer, more localized or lower-dose forms of the therapies available.”We’re challenging outdated thinking and recommitting to evidence-based medicine that empowers rather than restricts,” US health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr said in introducing the measure.Many experts had urged revisiting the black box label, which they say can scare women for whom benefits may outweigh risks.Others have voiced concern that changes shouldn’t come without a rigorous review process.”The warnings on hormone products for menopause had become outdated and it was time to update them,” said Diana Zuckerman, president of the nonprofit National Center for Health Research. But she told AFP “these products still have clear risks and the benefits are mostly for hot flashes and related symptoms of menopause, not for general health.”FDA head Marty Makary dismissed that notion of an independent review committee, saying they are “bureaucratic, long, often conflicted and very expensive.”Over the summer Makary convened a panel of experts overwhelmingly in favor of HRT, which included people with ties to pharmaceutical lobbying.Adriane Fugh-Berman, who directs a project that promotes rational prescribing at Georgetown University, told AFP that Monday’s announcement was “embarrassing” as it was ahead of any consensus and was “not how regulation should happen.”There could be benefits of HRT for some people, she told AFP, but cautioned that real risks remain, and more high-quality study is needed.But the president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Steven Fleischman, commended the FDA’s move, saying “the updated labels will better allow patients and clinicians to engage in a shared decision-making process.”Fleischman noted it was important to distinguish between systemic estrogen products — including methods taken orally or via patches — and low-dose vaginal estrogen.”Like all medications, systemic estrogen products are not without risk, and their use should be based on an individualized conversation between patients and their clinicians,” Fleischman said.The FDA said it is not seeking to remove the boxed warning for endometrial cancer for systemic estrogen-alone products. Sarah Shealy — a nurse-midwife, who is also a certified practitioner by the nonprofit organization the Menopause Society — welcomed the shift.She told AFP she hoped it signaled “the tide is turning” in terms of treatment access as well as education.”We largely have a medical community that doesn’t have a broad knowledge or confidence in prescribing hormone therapy, and this has left women feeling gaslit,” Shealy said.

US President Donald Trump hailed his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa after unprecedented talks at the White House Monday, saying Sharaa’s “rough” past as a jihadist would help him rebuild the war-torn country.Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, was the first Syrian leader to visit the White House since the Middle Eastern country’s independence in 1946.But the 43-year-old’s landmark visit to the Oval Office came just days after Washington removed him from its terrorism list. Sharaa’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda.Trump said he wanted Syria to become “very successful” after more than a decade of civil war and added that he believed Sharaa “can do it, I really do.””He’s a very strong leader. He comes from a very tough place, and he’s a tough guy,” Trump told reporters after the meeting, which was closed to press.”People said he’s had a rough past, we’ve all had rough pasts…And I think, frankly, if you didn’t have a rough past, you wouldn’t have a chance.”Trump said Syria was a “big part” of his plan for a wider Middle East peace plan, which the US president is hoping will prop up the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.But he would not confirm reports that Sharaa would bring Syria into the international US-led alliance against the Islamic State (IS) group, or that it would sign any non-aggression pact with long-term foe Israel.The Syrian president’s visit capped a remarkable turnaround for a former jihadist who once had a $10 million US bounty on his head.In dramatic scenes as he left his meeting with Trump, he climbed out of his motorcade to greet crowds of supporters outside the White House, surrounded on all sides by bodyguards.- ‘Astonishing transformation’ -Syria’s presidency said on X that Sharaa and Trump discussed the bilateral relationship, “the ways to strengthen and develop it, as well as a number of regional and international issues of common interest.”It published photos of Trump standing and shaking hands with a smiling Sharaa beside the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.Other pictures showed the Syrian leader sitting opposite Trump with top US officials including Vice President JD Vance, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and top US military officer Dan Caine.Since taking power, Syria’s new leaders have sought to break from their violent past and present a more moderate image to ordinary Syrians and foreign powers.Sharaa’s White House visit is “a hugely symbolic moment for the country’s new leader, who thus marks another step in his astonishing transformation from militant leader to global statesman,” said Michael Hanna, US program director at the International Crisis Group.The Syrian met Trump for the first time in Saudi Arabia during the US leader’s regional tour in May. At the time the 79-year-old Trump dubbed Sharaa, 43, as “a young, attractive guy.”Sharaa was expected to seek US funds for Syria, which faces significant challenges in rebuilding after 13 years of devastating civil war.After his arrival in Washington, Sharaa over the weekend met with IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva over possible aid.Sharaa’s jihadist past has caused controversy in some quarters but the State Department’s decision Friday to remove Sharaa from the blacklist was widely expected.The Syrian president has also been making diplomatic outreach towards Washington’s rivals. He met Russian President Vladimir Putin in October in their first meeting since the removal of Assad, a key Kremlin ally.

Stock markets charged higher Monday as investors cheered prospects that the US government shutdown could be nearing an end, after lawmakers reached a deal likely to break the record 40-day impasse.The prospect of operations resuming in the world’s biggest economy helped temper lingering worries about extended tech valuations amid talk of an AI bubble.”Everyone’s now anticipating we’ll see the government reopen in the next couple of days,” said Jack Ablin from Cresset Capital. That’s “good for the consumer, good for investors, really good for anyone who travels,” Ablin said.A group of Democrats in the Senate sided with Republicans in a procedural vote on the deal Sunday evening, clearing the way for a formal debate after reaching a bipartisan agreement to fund government operations through January.A government re-opening could also provide clarity on US inflation and on the soft labor market, which will determine whether the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates again, as is widely expected next month.”If all goes well, some federal agencies could reopen as soon as Friday,” said David Morrison, senior analyst at Trade Nation. He noted that both investors and the Fed had been “flying blind since the beginning of October, with a near-complete absence of data”.”Fed Chair Jerome Powell has played down the prospect of another rate cut in December, as it is far from obvious that inflation has peaked,” Morrison added. But as the shutdown entered its 41st day on Monday, investors focused on the US government reopening. They had grown increasingly concerned about the impact of severe disruptions of food benefits to low-income households, and of air travel heading into the Thanksgiving holiday.”Shutdowns haven’t typically had a big bearing on the economy or on financial markets. But, this one…looked as though it might start to cause some trouble,” said analysts at Capital Economics.- Rebound after tech worries -Wall Street opened higher across the board following turbulent losses last week on fears that AI optimism might have pushed tech stocks such as chip heavyweight Nvidia to unsustainable highs.European indices also rose sharply, following similar gains across Asia, with investors also taking heart from a further easing of China-US tensions.Beijing on Monday said it would suspend for one year “special port fees” on US vessels, “simultaneously” with Washington’s pause on levies targeting Chinese ships.The dollar, which steadied versus the euro and the pound, rose against the yen, while oil prices gained slightly after losses last week over concerns of hefty supply amid uncertainty over global demand.”Risk is back on, and last week’s sell-off seems like a distant memory,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading platform XTB.”There are some risks ahead, but unless we see a meaningful decline in Fed rate cut expectations, or a weak earnings report from (major computer chip-maker) Nvidia next week, then stocks could be poised to rally into year end,” she said.- Key figures at 2110 GMT -New York – Nasdaq: up 2.3 percent at 23,527.17 (close)New York – S&P 500: up 1.5 percent at 6,832.43 (close)New York – Dow:  UP 0.8 percent at 47,368.63 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 1.1 percent at 9,787.15 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 1.3 percent at 8,055.51 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 1.7 percent at 23,959.99 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.3 percent at 50,911.76 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 1.6 percent at 26,649.06 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.5 percent at 4,018.60 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1563 from $1.1566 on FridayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3182 from $1.3162Dollar/yen: UP at 154.03 yen from 153.42 yenEuro/pound: UP at 88.00 pence from 87.88 penceBrent North Sea Crude: UP 0.4 percent at $64.06 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 0.7 percent at $60.13 per barrel

The US Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day should be counted, a case that could have repercussions for the 2026 midterm vote.The case involves a challenge by the Republican National Committee to a law in the southern state of Mississippi that allows ballots to be counted if they arrive within five business days after Election Day.The ballots must be postmarked by Election Day.Around 30 US states have similar laws.Republican President Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of mail-in ballots and has falsely claimed that they contributed to his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. A federal judge ruled in favor of Mississippi but was overturned by an appeals court panel last year which said ballots must arrive by Election Day to be counted.The mail-in ballot case is one of a number of voting rights cases being heard by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court this term.The court, which includes three justices nominated by Trump, heard arguments last month over the use of race to draw electoral districts.The Supreme Court is likely to deliver its rulings in the cases by the end of June, which would provide enough time for them to be applied to the November midterm elections.

The US Supreme Court on Monday heard the case of a devout Rastafarian who is seeking damages after his knee-length dreadlocks were forcibly shorn while he was in prison in Louisiana.Damon Landor is seeking permission to sue individual officials of the Louisiana Department of Corrections for monetary damages for violating his religious rights.”Without damages, officials can literally treat the law like garbage,” Landor’s lawyer Zachary Tripp told the court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority.Louisiana has acknowledged that the treatment of Landor by prison guards was “antithetical to religious freedom” and has amended its prison grooming policy.But the southern US state insists that federal law does not permit money damages against a state official sued in his individual capacity — an argument that appeared to gain traction Monday among a majority of the conservative justices.Landor, who had been growing his hair for nearly two decades, was serving the final three weeks of a five-month sentence for drug possession in 2020 when his hair was cut.He presented prison guards with a copy of a 2017 court ruling stating that Rastafarians should be allowed to keep their dreadlocks in line with their religious beliefs.A prison guard threw the document away and Landor was handcuffed to a chair and had his head shaved, according to court records.An appeals court condemned Landor’s “egregious” treatment but ruled that he is not eligible to sue individual prison officials for damages.Rastafarians let their hair grow, typically in dreadlocks, as part of their beliefs in the religion which originated in Jamaica and was popularized by the late reggae singer Bob Marley.The case unusually brought together legal advocates on both the left and the right.  The Supreme Court is generally hostile to approving damages actions against individual government officials but at the same time the right-leaning court has tended to side with the plaintiffs in religious liberty cases.

US President Donald Trump threatened Monday to dock pay of air traffic controllers he accused of shirking their “patriotic” duty, while their union decried being used as “political pawns” during the government shutdown.The statements highlighted the mounting strains on the aviation industry as the record-long shutdown hits day 41, though a compromise bill advancing in Congress was raising hopes of an imminent resolution.Thousands more trips involving US airports were canceled or delayed Monday after nearly 3,000 were cut a day earlier, according to tracking website FlightAware.The Trump administration last week ordered 10-percent reductions in flights at dozens of airports, including some of the nation’s busiest, due to concerns that staffing strains could threaten safety.Air traffic controllers, who are already in shortage in the United States, have been working without pay in the shutdown, leading some to call in sick.Trump took to social media on Monday to slam the absenteeism as un-patriotic, threatening that those who do not return to work “will be substantially ‘docked.'””All Air Traffic Controllers must get back to work, NOW!!!” he demanded on his Truth Social platform.Trump said he was recommending a bonus of $10,000 to the “GREAT PATRIOTS” who did not take time off during the shutdown.His statement was posted just as a press conference was concluding with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), organized to mark the second consecutive zero-dollar paycheck for its members.”Enough is enough,” said NATCA president Nick Daniels. He called an emerging deal in Congress a “right step in the right direction.””Air traffic controllers should not be the political pawn during a government shutdown,” said Daniels, who has spoken in increasingly dire terms since federal funding first lapsed on October 1.NATCA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s remarks.Democratic congressman Rick Larsen called Trump’s comments “nuts.””The women and men working long hours in air traffic control towers to keep the aviation system running deserve our thanks and appreciation, not unhinged attacks on their patriotism,” said the Washington representative.- Working two jobs -The prospects for a potential resolution to the longest shutdown in US history looked brighter on Monday, after enough Democrats in the US Senate crossed sides to advance a bill to fund the government through January.However, Daniels noted that it took two and a half months after a lengthy shutdown in 2019 for all controllers to receive back pay.Meanwhile, “January 30 will loom around the corner,” he added.Daniels was joined at the event by Amy Lark, who works at an air traffic facility in Virginia.Her family is having to make due without two paychecks because Lark’s husband also works for the agency.”Yesterday, my kids asked me how long we could stay in our house. Having to answer that question was heartbreaking,” said Lark.She also described increased stress at work because of colleagues who have been up late working as an Uber driver or another job, while others face trouble paying for childcare.The cutbacks in the system are forcing travelers to adapt.”It’s a little crazy this morning. You’ve got to check and make sure you know you haven’t got your flight changes,” said Jack Nicks at Miami International Airport.”I have other friends that are flying today. They’ve already had three flight changes. So it’s a little rough.”

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa met US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday for unprecedented talks, just days after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist.Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, is the first Syrian leader to visit the White House since the country’s 1946 independence.Formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda, Sharaa’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was itself only delisted as a terrorist group by Washington in July. Sharaa himself was taken off the list on Friday.”The president of Syria arrived at the White House… The meeting between President Trump and President al-Sharaa has also started,” the White House said in a statement.Unusually for the normally camera-friendly Trump, both the arrival and the meeting of the Syrian president were taking place behind closed doors without the media present.Trump said last week that Sharaa was doing a “very good job. It’s a tough neighborhood. And he’s a tough guy. But I got along with them very well and a lot of progress has been made with Syria.”Since taking power, Syria’s new leaders have sought to break from their violent past and present a more moderate image to ordinary Syrians and foreign powers.Sharaa’s White House visit is “a hugely symbolic moment for the country’s new leader, who thus marks another step in his astonishing transformation from militant leader to global statesman,” said Michael Hanna, US program director at the International Crisis Group.The interim president met Trump for the first time in Saudi Arabia during the US leader’s regional tour in May. At the time the 79-year-old Trump dubbed Sharaa, 43, a “a young, attractive guy.”- Terror blacklist removal -The US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said earlier this month that Sharaa may on Monday sign an agreement to join the international US-led alliance against the Islamic State (IS) group.The United States plans to establish a military base near Damascus “to coordinate humanitarian aid and observe developments between Syria and Israel,” a diplomatic source in Syria told AFP.Washington has also been pushing for some kind of pact to end decades of enmity between Syria and Israel, part of Trump’s wider goal to shore up the fragile Gaza ceasefire with a broader Middle East peace settlement.For his part, Sharaa is expected to seek US funds for Syria, which faces significant challenges in rebuilding after 13 years of devastating civil war.After his arrival in Washington, Sharaa over the weekend met with IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva over possible aid.He also played basketball with US CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper and Kevin Lambert, the head of the international anti-IS operation in Iraq, according to a social media post by Syria’s foreign minister.Sharaa’s jihadist past has caused controversy in some quarters but the State Department’s decision Friday to remove Sharaa from the blacklist was widely expected.State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Sharaa’s government had been meeting US demands on working to find missing Americans and on eliminating any remaining chemical weapons.Sharaa’s trip comes weeks after he became the first Syrian president in decades to address the UN General Assembly in New York. Last week Washington led a Security Council vote to remove UN sanctions against him.The Syrian president has also been making diplomatic outreach towards Washington’s rivals. He met Russian President Vladimir Putin in October in their first meeting since the removal of Assad, a key Kremlin ally.